Frontline Combat #9 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

From the letter from the Editor placed on the inside cover, this was to be the first of 7 issues devoted to the American Civil War. Readers had requested the conflict of 1861-1865 be included in EC's war torn title. However, Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines felt that a single issue just wasn't enough space to adequately devoted to this important period in American history.

Frontline Combat was a sister series to the very macho Two-Fisted Tales, which originally focused on adventure stories. The book started off well, but with the end of the Korean War, EC saw a decline in sales. Ultimately, Frontline Combat's last issue would be #15. 

This issue would focus on the start of the war. There are 4 segments, all penned by Kurtzman. The first chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln from childhood to his inauguration as the 16th President of the United States. Readers then experience the first shot of the Civil War with the siege of Fort Sumter. The action heads West to the neutral state of Missouri as both Confederate loyalists and Union soldiers fight over possession of Camp Jackson. Lastly, we witness Union overconfidence turn the battle of Bull Run/Manassas into the Rebels first major victory of the early days of the war. 

While this issue highlights the constitutional crisis of the legality of the succeeding Southern States, slavery is never overtly addressed in this book as the main cause of the Civil War. Yet in true EC twist fashion, the narrator of the opening segment on Lincoln is revealed on the last page as being a black man who lives in Charleston, South Carolina on the eve of the Fort Sumter blockade. 

The artists featured in this issue are Jack Davis, John Severin, and Wally Wood. Cover art by Harvey Kurtzman. The one-page prose story was replaced with excepts of the inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln, featured in the opener titled 'Abe Lincoln!'

Though the full 7 parts of the Civil War series never came about, Two-Fisted Tales did devote a pair of issues to the Civil War before being cancelled in 1955 at issue #35. For those who might wish to follow up on learning more on the Civil War in comics and graphic novel form, check out Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War by Ari Kelman and Jonathan Fetter-Vorm,  Marvel's 4-issue Epic Battles of the Civil War and the 'Big Bad Ironclad!' and 'The Underground Abductor' entries in the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series for all-ages readers.

Completing this review completes Task #21 (Set in the 1800s) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Frontline Combat #3 (Banned Comics Week)

My first selection for Banned Comics Week is one of the less controversial books published by EC Comics. FrontLine Combat showed the gritty face of war for what it was. It didn’t pull any punches. But unlike the crime and horror titles of EC, the war titles were nowhere near as gory or visually graphic. That didn’t mean that they pulled any punches either.

  In the opening tale “Tin Can’ a young sailor assigned to latrine duty likens Christ’s parable on how every member of a church is like a part of the body to the role of soldiers on a boat. But this young ensign’s role is tragically down-played when his destroyer is hit by an enemy mine. The next tale involves a group of American POWS trying to survive a long trek during the Korean War. Their decisions will mean life, death, or freedom. Then an old French farmer reflects on the many wars that have ensnared his native land while Joes trying to liberate his village during World War II.

But it’s the final story that is perhaps the most controversial. In the Desert Fox, artist and writer Wally Wood parallels the German General’s glorious time in Africa to the atrocities in Europe at the hands of his fellow Nazis. The final two pages of the story recall dozens of heinous murders of Jews, anti-Nazi sympathizers, and other minorities while reflecting on Rommel’s last week in Germany. Considered a national hero to the German people, Hitler was jealous place that Desert Fox had in the hearts of Germans nationwide and saw him as a possible usurper to his role as Furher.  Thus, Rommel was framed for an attempt assassination on Hitler and forced to commit suicide by poison, much like Socrates. Only, Rommel’s death was covered up and made to look like a stroke had taken the General’s life.

  These sorts of expose stories were what eventually led to EC Comics becoming a target of the American government and other civic minded peoples. In issue #26 of Weird Science-Fiction Fantasy, the entire issue was devoted to the ‘cover-up’ of UFOs by the American military. More than likely these flying saucers were experimental aircraft being tested by the Army and Air Force. But these if these sightings were confirmed then top secret projects would be in danger of being exposed. Thus, the military would do its best thing to dismay the American populace- deny, Deny, DENY. But by publically challenging the US Air Force with an entire issue of documented reports of flying saucers, it’s sure to not win you very many influential fans. (They also hired a decorated marine pilot by the name of Keyhoe to help with the publication of this issue and it almost led to the soldier’s court-martial.)

EC Comics was known to continue pushing the social envelope with morality plays and damning reports that hoped to challenge how people saw not only themselves but their government. This issue is just a small bit of evidence of how the publishing company and its owner William (Mad Magazine) Gaines were considered subversive and in need to be quieted. The first step to ending the rein of EC was slowly underway…

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.